States News Roundup

The Minnesota State High School League has found that students who
participate in extracurricular activities generally have better
grade-point averages and attendance records than do students who do not
participate in the activities.

"The study documents what school officials have long assumed to be
true," said Larry Larson, league information officer. "[S]tudents who
are involved in athletics and fine arts generally are better students
than non-participants when it comes to grade-point average and
attendance."

The survey, based on responses from 305 of the league's 500 member
schools, found that the grade-point average for all students in the
1982-83 school year stood at 2.68, which is about a C-plus. Student
athletes as a group, however, averaged 2.84, which put them in the
B-minus category. And students participating in the fine arts--drama,
speech, debate, or music--averaged 2.98, about a B.

The attendance report showed that the absenteeism rate for all
students was 8.76 days for the 1982-83 school year, compared with 7.44
for student athletes and 6.94 for participants in other
league-sanctioned activities.

"It doesn't surprise me that the athlete and fine-arts students
collectively do a better job, because I think the kind of habits
students develop from participating in extracurricular activities carry
over and become good habits in the application of their academic
studies," said Orv Bies, the league's assistant director.

The league, a member of the National Federation of State High School
Activity Associations, sanctions the extracurricular activities of
about 95,000 student athletes and 30,000 fine-arts students, Mr. Larson
said. The league's survey was released April 17.

Montana education officials have reached an agreement in a two-year-old
discrimination suit that alleged that young women participating in
interscholastic sports were treated inequitably.

The suit was initiated in 1982 by three students from the Missoula,
Columbia Falls, and Whitehall school districts against the state
superintendent for public instruction and the Montana High School
Association, which governs all extracurricular activities.

The settlement agreement, which was signed this month, resolves all
charges in the class action and establishes minimum standards in school
athletics to assure young women equal opportunity in interscholastic
sports, according to Richard P. Bartos, lawyer for the state
superintendent. Signing the agreement, he said, does not constitute
an

admission of discrimination by any of the defendants named in the
suit.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mr. Bartos said, school officials
will be required to provide, among other things, an equal number of
state-sanctioned sports events for boys and girls, equal consideration
in the scheduling and location of tournaments, and equal compensation
and meal expenses for coaches.

The agreement also extends the state's grievance procedures to
disputes that arise in the future over interscholastic athletics,
according to Mr. Bartos.

The 42-page document now must be approved by a federal district
judge.

A three-year project designed to help students and members of the
public understand the benefits and drawbacks of chemicals will begin
this month at the University of California's Lawrence Hall of Science
in Berkeley.

The project, to be conducted in cooperation with the Chemical
Industry Council of California, will collect information on chemicals
and make it available to the public. Informational and educational
programs and materials for schools will also be tested and
developed.

Program officials have targeted middle and junior-high schools to
receive instructional materials.

Those grades are "promising points for educational-improvement
efforts and science," according to Herbert D. Thier, associate director
of the Lawrence Hall of Science and program director for the Chemical
Education for Public Understanding Project.

Private companies and foundations have pledged $130,000 to support
the first year of the project. A bill now pending in the California
legislature would make it a model public education project to be
reproduced around the state.

Kentucky has launched an "education foundation" that will raise funds
from state and local businesses to "support and enrich" education in
the state, Superintendent of Public Instruction Alice McDonald
announced late last month.

The private, nonprofit corporation has received an initial 25,000
grant from Ashland Oil Inc. to sponsor its first project this June--a
week-long institute at the University of Kentucky for 40 teachers that
will focus on the challenges technology will pose in the future, Ms.
McDonald said.

The funds that the foundation will provide for the state's
elementary and secondary schools are "intended to supplement, but not
replace" government funds for education, she said.

Kentucky joins a handful of other states that have launched
statewide foundations. West Virginia is believed to be the first state
to form such a nonprofit organization.

Web Only

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.